Abstract:
The incorporation of stakeholders in decision-making goes a long way in creating an
enabling environment for learning and realizing organizational effectiveness. This study
sought to investigate the influence of Principals' level of education on student leaders'
involvement in secondary school governance in Kenya. The study objective sought to
establish the relationship between the principals' level of education and student leaders'
involvement in governance in secondary schools. The study was based on path goal theory
that postulates that subordinates behaviour is motivated and influenced by their leader. The
study used Descriptive survey design. The sample size was selected by stratified sampling,
simple random sampling and purposive sampling techniques to select 17 principals and 255
student leaders giving a total 272 respondents. Questionnaires were used as data collection
tools. The split-half technique was used to establish instrument reliability. Data was
analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Thematic discussions were
employed to take care of the qualitative data. The findings were presented using frequency
distribution tables, means and percentages. From the findings, the ANOVA results indicated
that there is no significant difference between the principals' level of education and student
leaders' involvement in school governance (F=0.33, Sig=0.80) at p>0.05. The study
concluded that all the principals across the sampled schools involved students in school
governance issues to the same extent irrespective of their education level and recommended
formulation of clear guidelines on operations of student leaders who should be made aware
of their right to participate and represent the interests of other students in matters affecting
them.
